All Discussions Tagged 'Humans' - Atheist Nexus2015-08-02T19:21:00Zhttp://atheistnexus.org/group/originsuniverselifehumankindanddarwin/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=Humans&feed=yes&xn_auth=noResearchers Find Links Betwteen Genetic Diversity, Height and Cognitive Skillstag:atheistnexus.org,2015-07-08:2182797:Topic:26215072015-07-08T22:43:23.831ZJohn Jubinskyhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/JohnJubinsky
<p><span class="font-size-3"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">A major study performed by researchers from the University of Edinburgh has established links between genetic diversity, height and cognitive skills. Per the article:</font></span><span class="font-size-3"><i><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font></i></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><i><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Those who are born to parents from diverse genetic backgrounds tend to be taller and have…</font></i></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">A major study performed by researchers from the University of Edinburgh has established links between genetic diversity, height and cognitive skills. Per the article:</font></span><span class="font-size-3"><i><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font></i></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><i><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Those who are born to parents from diverse genetic backgrounds tend to be taller and have sharper thinking skills than others, the major international study has found.</font></i></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><i><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Researchers analysed health and genetic information from more than 100 studies carried out around the world. These included details on more than 350,000 people from urban and rural communities.</font></i></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><i><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">The team found that greater genetic diversity is linked to increased height. It is also associated with better cognitive skills, as well as higher levels of education</font></i></span><span class="font-size-3"><i><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">....</font></i></span><i>The study is published in the journal <em>Nature</em> and was funded by the Medical Research Council.</i></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150701133345.htm"><font face="Calibri" size="3">http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150701133345.htm</font></a></span></p>
<p></p> Modern Humans Interbred with Neanderthals in Europetag:atheistnexus.org,2015-06-25:2182797:Topic:26144992015-06-25T16:32:09.046ZJohn Jubinskyhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/JohnJubinsky
<p>Analysis of a 40,000 year old jawbone found in Romania revealed that it was of a modern human that had up to 11% Neanderthal DNA which had come from a Neanderthal ancestor 4 to 6 generations back. This means that modern humans interbred with Neanderthals in Europe. It is estimated that modern humans coexisted with Neanderthals in Europe for up to 5, 000 years. Per the article:</p>
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<p><em>....radiocarbon dating of remains from sites across Europe suggests that modern humans and…</em></p>
<p>Analysis of a 40,000 year old jawbone found in Romania revealed that it was of a modern human that had up to 11% Neanderthal DNA which had come from a Neanderthal ancestor 4 to 6 generations back. This means that modern humans interbred with Neanderthals in Europe. It is estimated that modern humans coexisted with Neanderthals in Europe for up to 5, 000 years. Per the article:</p>
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<p><em>....radiocarbon dating of remains from sites across Europe suggests that modern humans and Neanderthals both lived in Europe for up to 5,000 years....DNA taken from a 40,000-year-old modern human jawbone reveals that this man had a Neandertal ancestor as recently as four to six generations back.... They estimate that five to 11 percent of the genome preserved in the bone derives from a Neanderthal ancestor...."The data from the jawbone imply that humans mixed with Neanderthals not just in the Middle East but in Europe as well" says Qiaomei Fu, one of the lead researchers of the study.</em></p>
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<p>The findings appear in the latest issue of the journal, <em>Nature.</em></p>
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<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150622122718.htm">http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150622122718.htm</a></p> DNA Links Kennewick Man to Native Americanstag:atheistnexus.org,2015-06-18:2182797:Topic:26127412015-06-18T18:51:56.024ZJohn Jubinskyhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/JohnJubinsky
<p><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Kennewick Man is the name that has been given to the 8500 year old human remains discovered in 1996 on the shore of the Columbia River in Washington State. Up until now they could not be DNA tested. However, improved DNA testing methods have allowed DNA testing of them and determined that they are more closely related to modern Native Americans than any other people. There has been a lot of legal action…</span></p>
<p><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Kennewick Man is the name that has been given to the 8500 year old human remains discovered in 1996 on the shore of the Columbia River in Washington State. Up until now they could not be DNA tested. However, improved DNA testing methods have allowed DNA testing of them and determined that they are more closely related to modern Native Americans than any other people. There has been a lot of legal action pertaining to whether they should be accessible to scientists for study or given to Native Americans in accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Per the article: </span></p>
<p><em><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">“Kennewick Man’s genome sequence is closer to that of Native Americans than any other contemporary people’s including the Ainu and Polynesians,” senior author Eske Willerslev, from the University of Copenhagen’s Centre for GeoGenetics, told Discovery News....The results challenge a 2014 study that concluded, based on anatomical data, that Kennewick Man was more related to indigenous Japanese or Polynesian peoples than to Native Americans.</span></em></p>
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<p><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://news.discovery.com/human/genetics/kennewick-man-close-kin-to-native-americans-gene-study-shows-150618.htm">http://news.discovery.com/human/genetics/kennewick-man-close-kin-to-native-americans-gene-study-shows-150618.htm</a></span></p>
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<p></p> Big Toothed Hominin Lived at the Same Time and in the Same Area as Lucytag:atheistnexus.org,2015-05-28:2182797:Topic:26074342015-05-28T10:39:15.066ZJohn Jubinskyhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/JohnJubinsky
<p>Scientists have established that a big toothed hominin lived at the same time and in the same area as the famous smaller toothed and petite "Lucy" hominin. Per the article:</p>
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<p><i>The human family tree has a new member: a big-toothed early human ancestor that lived in Ethiopia 3.3 to 3.5 million years ago, according to a paper in the latest issue of the journal Nature. The newly discovered human, named Australopithecus deyiremeda, overlapped in both time and region with yet…</i></p>
<p>Scientists have established that a big toothed hominin lived at the same time and in the same area as the famous smaller toothed and petite "Lucy" hominin. Per the article:</p>
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<p><i>The human family tree has a new member: a big-toothed early human ancestor that lived in Ethiopia 3.3 to 3.5 million years ago, according to a paper in the latest issue of the journal Nature. The newly discovered human, named Australopithecus deyiremeda, overlapped in both time and region with yet another prehistoric human, "Lucy"</i> (<i>Austrolithecus afarensis</i>)….<i>Combined results from three established different dating processes yielded the estimated age of the fossils.</i> <i>The location where the fossils were found is just 21.8 miles south of where "Lucy" lived in Hadar, Ethiopia…."It is remarkable to have two closely related species that appear to have lived in the same area, during approximately the same time period," said Fred Spoor of both the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and University College London, and author of a "News &amp; Views" article in Nature about the find.</i></p>
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<p><i><font face="Calibri" size="3"><a href="http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/new-big-toothed-prehistoric-human-lived-alongside-lucy-150527.htm">http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/new-big-toothed-prehistoric-human-lived-alongside-lucy-150527.htm</a></font></i></p>
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<p></p> Human Ancestors Made and Used Stone Tools 3.3 Million Years Agotag:atheistnexus.org,2015-05-20:2182797:Topic:26051592015-05-20T20:19:55.719ZJohn Jubinskyhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/JohnJubinsky
<p>Tools consisting of hammer type stones, anvil type stones, worked cobblestones and other items have been discovered in Kenya and determined to be 3.3 million years old. This predates the previously oldest known stone tools by 700,000 years. Per the article:</p>
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<p><em>A recently unearthed stone tool kit consisting of hammer stones, anvils, worked cobblestones and other items dates to 3.3 million years ago, predating our genus Homo by over half a million years, according to a new…</em></p>
<p>Tools consisting of hammer type stones, anvil type stones, worked cobblestones and other items have been discovered in Kenya and determined to be 3.3 million years old. This predates the previously oldest known stone tools by 700,000 years. Per the article:</p>
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<p><em>A recently unearthed stone tool kit consisting of hammer stones, anvils, worked cobblestones and other items dates to 3.3 million years ago, predating our genus Homo by over half a million years, according to a new study. The items, described in the latest issue of the journal Nature, are now the oldest stone tools ever found. They "show that early humans (essentially proto-humans) used and made stone tools 3.3 million years ago, which is about 700,000 years earlier than the previously earliest known date for early stone tools," Erella Hovers, who authored an accompanying "News &amp; Views" article, told Discovery News....The approximately 149 stone artifacts tied to tool making were found at a site called Lomekwi 3 next to Lake Turkana in Kenya. "The tools from Lomekwi show a mixture of pounding and flaking activities," Hovers said....Intriguingly, animal bones from Dikaka, Ethiopia, which bear stone-inflicted cut marks, date to at least 3.39 million years ago, suggesting that stone tools were made and used even before the Lomekwi 3 items.</em></p>
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<p><a href="http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/sophisticated-tool-kit-predates-humans-150520.htm">http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/sophisticated-tool-kit-predates-humans-150520.htm</a> </p> Teeth Fossils Say Modern Humans were in Western Europe as Neanderthals Went Extinct Theretag:atheistnexus.org,2015-04-23:2182797:Topic:25960202015-04-23T21:21:40.549ZJohn Jubinskyhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/JohnJubinsky
<p>Scientists say that 41,000 year old teeth found in Italy belonged to modern humans. This puts modern humans in Europe at the same time that Neanderthals were going extinct there. Moreover, it suggests that modern humans may have had something to do with Neanderthals going extinct there. Per the article:</p>
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<p><em>Ancient teeth from Italy suggest that the arrival of modern humans in Western Europe coincided with the demise of Neanderthals there, researchers said. This finding…</em></p>
<p>Scientists say that 41,000 year old teeth found in Italy belonged to modern humans. This puts modern humans in Europe at the same time that Neanderthals were going extinct there. Moreover, it suggests that modern humans may have had something to do with Neanderthals going extinct there. Per the article:</p>
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<p><em>Ancient teeth from Italy suggest that the arrival of modern humans in Western Europe coincided with the demise of Neanderthals there, researchers said. This finding suggests that modern humans may have caused Neanderthals to go extinct, either directly or indirectly, scientists added....Recent findings suggest that <a href="http://www.livescience.com/47460-neanderthal-extinction-revealed.html">Neanderthals disappeared from Europe</a> between about 41,000 and 39,000 years ago....Now scientists analyzing two 41,000-year-old teeth from two Protoaurignacian sites in Italy find that the fossils belonged to modern humans. "We finally have proof for the argument that says that modern humans were there when the <a href="http://www.livescience.com/50532-neanderthals-died-no-fire.html">Neanderthals went extinct</a> in Europe," study lead author Stefano Benazzi, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Bologna in Ravenna, Italy, told Live Science....It remains unclear just how modern humans might have driven Neanderthals into extinction, Benazzi cautioned. Modern humans might have competed with Neanderthals, or they might simply have assimilated Neanderthals into their populations....The scientists detailed their findings in the April 24 issue of the journal Science.</em></p>
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<p><a href="http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/teeth-suggest-humans-played-role-in-neanderthal-extinction-150423.htm">http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/teeth-suggest-humans-played-role-in-neanderthal-extinction-150423.htm</a></p> 6000 Year Old Valentines Found in Greek Cavetag:atheistnexus.org,2015-02-15:2182797:Topic:25713862015-02-15T00:19:44.893ZJohn Jubinskyhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/JohnJubinsky
<p>6000 year old skeletons of a man and a woman have been found in a romantic embrace in a Greek cave. Evidently, romantic feelings go back a long way. Per the article:</p>
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<p><em>A 6,000-year-old romance has been uncovered in a Greek cave as archaeologists unearthed the skeletons of an undisturbed Neolithic couple locked in an embrace...The grave also contained broken arrowheads. Although the pair was originally found in 2014 by a team of archaeologists and speleologists led by George…</em></p>
<p>6000 year old skeletons of a man and a woman have been found in a romantic embrace in a Greek cave. Evidently, romantic feelings go back a long way. Per the article:</p>
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<p><em>A 6,000-year-old romance has been uncovered in a Greek cave as archaeologists unearthed the skeletons of an undisturbed Neolithic couple locked in an embrace...The grave also contained broken arrowheads. Although the pair was originally found in 2014 by a team of archaeologists and speleologists led by George Papathanassopoulos, the Greek Ministry of Culture announced the results of DNA and radio carbon tests on Thursday, just in time for Valentine’s Day.</em></p>
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<p><a href="http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/skeletons-locked-in-6000-year-old-embrace-found-in-cave-150213.htm">http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/skeletons-locked-in-6000-year-old-embrace-found-in-cave-150213.htm</a></p> People of All Languages Use More Happy Wordstag:atheistnexus.org,2015-02-10:2182797:Topic:25656732015-02-10T01:58:15.700ZJohn Jubinskyhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/JohnJubinsky
<p>A new study involving billions of words from ten major languages confirms the much debated 1969 Pollyanna Hypothesis that humans tend to look on and talk about the bright side of life. Per the article:</p>
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<p><em>To deeply explore this Pollyanna possibility, the team of scientists at UVM's Computational Story Lab -- with support from the National Science Foundation and The MITRE Corporation -- gathered billions of words from around the world using twenty-four types of sources…</em></p>
<p>A new study involving billions of words from ten major languages confirms the much debated 1969 Pollyanna Hypothesis that humans tend to look on and talk about the bright side of life. Per the article:</p>
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<p><em>To deeply explore this Pollyanna possibility, the team of scientists at UVM's Computational Story Lab -- with support from the National Science Foundation and The MITRE Corporation -- gathered billions of words from around the world using twenty-four types of sources including books, news outlets, social media, websites, television and movie subtitles, and music lyrics. For example, "we collected roughly one hundred billion words written in tweets," says UVM mathematician Chris Danforth who co-led the new research. From these sources, the team then identified about ten thousand of the most frequently used words in each of ten languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Chinese (simplified), Russian, Indonesian and Arabic. Next, they paid native speakers to rate all these frequently-used words on a nine-point scale from a deeply frowning face to a broadly smiling one. From these native speakers, they gathered five million individual human scores of the words. Averaging these, in English for example, "laughter" rated 8.50, "food" 7.44, "truck" 5.48, "the" 4.98, "greed" 3.06 and "terrorist" 1.30.....all twenty-four sources of words that they analyzed skewed above the neutral score of five on their one-to-nine scale -- regardless of the language. In every language, neutral words like "the" scored just where you would expect: in the middle, near five. And when the team translated words between languages and then back again they found that "the estimated emotional content of words is consistent between languages." In all cases, the scientists found "a usage-invariant positivity bias," as they write in the study. In other words, by looking at the words people actually use most often they found that, on average, we -- humanity -- "use more happy words than sad words," Danforth says.</em></p>
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<p>The study appears in the 2-9-15 online edition of the journal, <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.</em></p>
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<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150209161143.htm">http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150209161143.htm</a> </p> 42,000 Year Old Flutetag:atheistnexus.org,2014-12-09:2182797:Topic:25178532014-12-09T03:25:10.895ZJohn Jubinskyhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/JohnJubinsky
<p>A 42,000 year old bone flute as well as a number of other objects thought to have been made about 50,000 years ago to increase the aesthetic aspects of life are shown in slides including an ivory ring, combs and the oldest known artwork (540,000 years old). The flute is the world's oldest known musical instrument. (Slide repeatedly right to see it.)</p>
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<p>A 42,000 year old bone flute as well as a number of other objects thought to have been made about 50,000 years ago to increase the aesthetic aspects of life are shown in slides including an ivory ring, combs and the oldest known artwork (540,000 years old). The flute is the world's oldest known musical instrument. (Slide repeatedly right to see it.)</p>
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<p><a href="http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/gift-list-circa-50000-bc-photos-141208.htm">http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/gift-list-circa-50000-bc-photos-141208.htm</a></p> 540,000 Year Old Artworktag:atheistnexus.org,2014-12-04:2182797:Topic:25154642014-12-04T23:42:24.164ZJohn Jubinskyhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/JohnJubinsky
<p>540,000 year old artwork by a human ancestor has been determined to have been created in Java, Indonesia. It is in the form of a carving on a mollusk shell by use of a shark tooth. It is the oldest piece of artwork ever discovered by at least 300,000 years and is attributed to Homo erectus. Per the article:</p>
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<p><em>Some 540,000 years ago, an ancient ancestor of modern humans took a shark tooth and carefully carved a geometric engraving on a mollusk shell. The engraving -- the…</em></p>
<p>540,000 year old artwork by a human ancestor has been determined to have been created in Java, Indonesia. It is in the form of a carving on a mollusk shell by use of a shark tooth. It is the oldest piece of artwork ever discovered by at least 300,000 years and is attributed to Homo erectus. Per the article:</p>
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<p><em>Some 540,000 years ago, an ancient ancestor of modern humans took a shark tooth and carefully carved a geometric engraving on a mollusk shell. The engraving -- the oldest piece of art ever found by at least 300,000 years -- as well as a shell tool were found at a site in what is now Java, Indonesia....The findings are published in the current issue of the journal Nature.</em></p>
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<p><a href="http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/oldest-art-was-carved-onto-shell-540000-years-ago-141203.htm">http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/oldest-art-was-carved-onto-shell-540000-years-ago-141203.htm</a></p>